Adjunct Professor
Peter Timms

This person does not currently hold a position at QUT.
Biography
Research theme: Food, HealthResearch discipline: Cell and Molecular Biosciences
Research program: Infectious Diseases
Research area
- Development of chlamydial vaccines
Chlamydia causes several serious diseases including sexually transmitted infections, infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease, respiratory infections and trachoma. The team is group is using animal models to develop vaccines for urogenital infections in both women and men.
- Basic studies on stress response in Chlamydia
Chlamydia are effective intracellular parasites and are constantly responding to "stress conditions". They have evolved a range of mechanisms to survive, including some novel proteins. The research group is studying various stress-related proteins using a range of molecular approaches.
- Chlamydial infections in wildlife
Chlamydia continues to be a significant cause of disease in koala but is also found in other Australian wildlife including bandicoots, possums, frogs. Professor Timms's research group is part of an international project to analyse the full genome of the koala strain of Chlamydia pneumoniae, to understand how it is different to the human strains. They have also commenced a vaccine development program for koalas.
Areas of expertise
- Chlamydia
- Vaccines
- Diagnostics
- Molecular microbiology.
Current grants:
2009 – 2012: ARC Linkage Scheme (LP0990147): $290,000; Timms & Beagley; Development of an anti-Chlamydia vaccine for the koala
2009 - 2011: NHMRC: $309,500; Timms, Beagley, Hafner & Ramsey; Development of a vaccine for genital chlamydial infections; protection against transmission and disease pathology
2009 - 2011: NHMRC: $517,000; Beagley & Timms; Towards a Chlamydia vaccine for males; The key role of mucosal IgA
2009-2011: NHMRC: $373,500; Huston & Timms; Role of HtrA and RseP, stress response proteases, in development and persistence of Chlamydia trachomatis infections
2009: Wesley Research Institute: $42,170; Allan, Huston, Timms & Debattista; Identification of Chlamydia trachomatis proteases which have a role during the immunopathological disease which results in infertility in women
2008 - 2011: ARC Linkage: $90,000; Beagley & Timms; Development of an effective vaccine for chlamydial infection : optimization of a non-toxic cholera toxin-based adjuvant to generate a protective mucosal immunity.
Selected research projects
- Development of a chlamydial vaccine
- Development of novel chlamydial diagnostic tests
- Understanding chlamydial gene regulation
- Understanding chlamydial pathogenesis
- Chlamydial diseases of wildlife.
Personal details
Keywords
Chlamydia, Microbiology, Molecular biotechnology, Sexually transmitted infections, Veterinary diseases
Discipline
Microbiology
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- PhD (University of Queensland)
- MSc (University of Queensland)
- BSc(Hons) (University of Queensland)
Professional memberships and associations
- Fellow, Australian Society for Microbiology
Teaching
Selected publications
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Peter, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).